Ukraine war briefing: kyiv forces attack Russian military airfield in Crimea

Ukrainian missiles hit Russian military airfield in Crimea Ukraine said Friday that the Saky airfield in western Crimea had been used for long-range attacks. The Ukrainian military’s general staff said it was assessing the consequences of the attack. “This is one of the operational airfields that Russia uses to control the airspace, in particular the Black Sea, and to launch airstrikes on Ukrainian territory.” The Russian Defense Ministry and local officials installed by Moscow did not immediately comment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy implicitly acknowledged the strike. In his video address Friday, he praised “our soldiers who are striking Russian bases and logistics in the occupied territories.” He said: “To our guys, to our soldiers, I thank you for your precision.” Ukraine says it has struck a series of Russian air defense systems deployed in Crimea, such as S-300 and S-400 units, in recent months.

Russian air defenses intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones within an hour The incident happened Friday night in the southern Russian border region of Bryansk, the region’s governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram. No casualties or serious damage were reported. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, also on the border with Ukraine further southeast, said Three drone attacks and several bombings broke windows and caused other damage to buildings.

Russia has sentenced several people convicted of treason and “terrorism” to up to 22 years in prison A Moscow military court on Friday convicted two men accused of planning to blow up fuel tanks at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence. The men, Mikhail Darii and Ilya Kovylkov, were sentenced to 22 and 15 years in prison, respectively, on “terrorism” and other charges. Darii said he did not carry out the planned attack because he wanted to minimize civilian casualties, independent media outlet SOTAvision reported. Prosecutors said Ukrainian intelligence officers offered the men $2,000 to carry out the attack using a drone, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Two other men were convicted in separate cases for trying to join Russia’s Freedom Legiona pro-kyiv fighter unit that includes Russian citizens and has carried out armed border raids into Russian territory throughout the war. A military court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don sentenced Ivan Kovtunovsky, 23, to 11 years in prison for plotting to commit treason and join a “terrorist organization.” In Moscow, a military court sentenced another man, Vyacheslav Lutor, 34, to 10 years in prison for attempting to join the same unit, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Russia’s FSB security service. Lutor was arrested after he bought a plane ticket to Turkey with the intention of traveling to Ukraine and took photographs of an “industrial facility” in St. Petersburg that could have been the target of “future Ukrainian drone attacks.”

Former top Russian defense official arrested, charged with corruption Dmitry Bulgakov, the deputy defense minister in charge of military logistics for nearly 15 years until his dismissal in September 2022, was arrested Friday by the FSB security service and taken to Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison. He has been widely blamed for the Russian military’s logistical failures in the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which left troops severely undersupplied and blocked Moscow’s advances. Bulgakov — the recipient of several top military and civilian awards, including the Hero of Russia prize, the country’s highest honor — was one of the longest-serving defense officials.

A Ukrainian court has remanded in custody an 18-year-old man accused of murdering a former nationalist MP.Iryna Farion, a radical activist who has been sowing discord in Ukraine over the use of the Russian language, was shot dead on July 19 near her apartment in Lviv, western Ukraine. A Lviv court on Friday ordered the suspect, who gave his name as Vyacheslav Zinchenko, to be remanded in custody for at least 60 days, state media outlet Supline reported. Zinchenko was arrested this week in Dnipro, 500 miles (800 km) east of Lviv. Investigators said they were working to determine a motive for the attack. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said he was inclined to believe the shooter acted on orders.

The US Treasury Secretary said “things seem to be going well” for the wealthy G7 democracies to agree to the terms of a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. The $50 billion loan, agreed in principle by G7 leaders in June, would be funded by about $300 billion of Russian central bank assets frozen in the West after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. Janet Yellen told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 financial leaders in Brazil that discussions to advance the loan were constructive, including on U.S. requests for assurances that the assets would remain frozen for a longer period.

Slovakia announced on Friday that it had proposed a technical solution to Ukraine to restore interrupted deliveries of Russian oil to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.after warnings that a partial shutdown could lead to fuel shortages as early as September. Eastern EU members Slovakia and Hungary have been hit by the halting of Russian Lukoil Group’s flows through Ukraine after Kiev imposed sanctions on the company. The Slovak government office said Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal, on Friday and that Fico “proposed to Ukrainian partners a technical solution in which several states, including Slovakia, should participate,” without giving further details.

A German man sentenced to death in Belarus appeared on the country’s state television in tears and begging the German government to intervene “Mr. Scholz, please, I am still alive … it is not too late,” Rico Krieger, pictured handcuffed in a cell, said as he addressed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Belarusian authorities say Krieger, 30, traveled to the country last fall on orders from Ukrainian intelligence to carry out a terrorist attack on a railway line.