Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy thanks Scholz for new Patriots

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, says that Ukrainian forces are trying to break through Russian lines on the eastern frontline.

"The enemy managed to enter and gain a foothold in the northern part of Urozhaine after two weeks of the heaviest and bloodiest battles for this settlement," Rogov said.

Urozhaine is a village near the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region.

Rogov said that Russian forces still controlled the southern part of the village and that Kyiv was attempting to take control of Staromlynivka to its south.

Oleg Chekhov, a spokesman for Russia's Vostok battle group, said that Ukrainian forces were attempting to attack in the direction of Urozhaine and the neighboring town of Staromaiorske.

He said that Russian artillery fire had destroyed pontoons used by Ukrainian forces in an attempt to cross the Mokri Yali river.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June, attempting to retake Russian-occupied territory in the south and east of the country.

Kyiv has managed to recapture a number of villages in the south and areas around the eastern city of Bakhmut, but has not achieved major gains against Russian forces.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for continued talks on ending the war in Ukraine.

He made the comments in an interview for Germany's public ZDF broadcaster following a security summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Scholz argued that continuing diplomatic efforts could increase pressure on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

Representatives from China, Germany, India and the United States took part in the summit, to which Russia was not invited.

Road traffic on the Kerch Bridge has resumed after a brief suspension, an official Telegram channel said.

Authorities did not state the reason for the road closure.

The bridge links the Crimean Peninsula, which has been occupied by Moscow since 2014, and the Russian region of Krasnodar in the northern Caucasus.

The announcement comes a day after Russia's Defense Ministry said that its forces had shot down 20 unmanned Ukrainian drones over Crimea. Moscow-installed authorities also reported explosions at the Kerch Bridge, but insisted the structure hadn't been damaged.

Traffic was also been briefly halted on Saturday night and resumed after two hours.

The bridge has come under attack on multiple occasions in the past, at times suffering serious damage. The structure is logistically important for Moscow in its war in Ukraine.

Rafael Loss, an expert on security policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, told DW about Ukraine's aims regarding the recent attacks on the Kerch bridge. The Kerch bridge connects Crimea with the Russian mainland.

"We've seen in recent weeks that Ukrainian defenders are trying to sever the logistic links that are connecting the various parts of Russia's occupation force in occupied Crimea but also in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south of Ukraine," Loss told DW. 

"For that purpose they attacked the Kerch bridge, but they've also tried to attack bridges connecting occupied Crimea with the Ukrainian mainland," he added. 

He said these attacks seek to "strain" Russia's occupation of its neighbor.

"Such attacks also bring a certain psychological effect both to Russian military leadership but also Russian civilians who are still going to Crimea to spend their summer vacations there, participating in this illegal annexation," he said. 

Loss also gave his take on the possible supply of Taurus cruise missiles from Germany to Ukraine, saying such a decision would be a "signicant move by the government in Berlin."  

 

Russian shelling has killed seven people, including a baby girl, in southern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official.

The girl's 12-year-old brother and their parents were also killed, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app. The family was killed in the village of Shyroka Balka.

"A man, a woman and their 23-day-old daughter were killed by enemy artillery fire," Klymenko wrote. He also shared pictures that showed the aftermath of the shelling.

Two men aged 57 and 71 were also killed in the village of Stanislav, officials said, while a woman was wounded. 

"Terrorists must be stopped. They must be stopped by force," Klymenko said.

A Russian warship fired warning shots at a cargo ship heading for a Ukrainian Black Sea port, Moscow said. 

The Russian defense ministry said the Vasily Bykov patrol ship saw the cargo vessel flying the flag of Palau "on its way to the Ukrainian port of Izmail".

The captain of the Sukru Okan cargo ship did not react to calls to stop for "inspection for the transport of prohibited goods".

"To force the ship to stop, warning shots from automatic small arms were fired from the Russian warship," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The ship was then inspected by Russian military personnel flown in with a helicopter. The Sukru Okan was then granted permission to continue its journey after the inspection.

Izmail has become the main export port for Ukrainian agricultural products since Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal that had allowed agricultural goods to be transported onto the global market over the sea.

At least 500 children have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the ongoing count by the Ukrainian judiciary. This was announced by the Prosecutor General's Office in the capital Kyiv.

Additionally, nearly 1,100 children suffered injuries of varying severity, the office wrote on Telegram. It pointed out that the count had not been completed yet. It said it was investigating and looking for more cases in the combat zone, in areas liberated by Ukraine as well as in areas occupied by Russian troops. 

Most of the cases of child deaths and injuries were from the eastern regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv near the front, followed by the capital region of Kyiv and Kherson in the south. The latest known case was an eight-year-old boy who was fatally injured in a rocket attack in western Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukrainian sources.  

The Ukrainian judiciary documents civilian deaths and injuries. It is collecting material that could serve as evidence of alleged war crimes by Russian soldiers in later trials.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its daily intelligence update that "there is a realistic possibility that the Kremlin no longer funds the Wagner Group" following the mercenaries' attempts to march on Moscow in a short-lived coup in June.

The update pointed to Moscow's recent moves against the business interests of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The MoD said that the Wagner Group is probably downsizing, "largely to save on staff salary expenses at a time of financial pressure."

Without Russian backing, UK intelligence suggested that Belarus — where the bulk of the group went following the abortive mutiny — would be "the second most plausible paymasters," but also highlighted the "significant and potentially unwelcome drain on modest Belarusian resources."

Recent reports have also suggested that most of the Wagner Group forces may have since been kicked out of Belarus.

Despite well-filled gas storage facilities, the German Network Agency sees continued risks for the country's energy supply in the coming winter months and issued another call for savings amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

"It would be premature to sound the all-clear," Klaus Müller, the agency's president, told German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

"Residual risks remain." These included a very cold winter in Europe, he said, although he acknowledged that the 90% storage rate was higher than during the previous summer.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin could also turn off the gas tap for south-eastern Europe. Attacks on pipelines are still a possible horror scenario."

"There are still countries in Europe that buy Russian gas, and if the supply were to be cut off, we would have to rush to the rescue," economist Veronika Grimm told Funke media group.

Russian air defense systems destroyed a Ukraine-launched unmanned aerial vehicle over the territory of the Belgorod region early on Sunday morning, Russian Defense Ministry said.

"There are no casualties and no damage," the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, adding the attack took place around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT).

The Belgorod region in Russia's south borders Ukraine. The region has suffered frequent artillery and drone attacks in the last few months, and in May saw an armed cross-border incursion.

Germany's Rheinmetall will deliver a Luna New Generation drone system to Ukraine by the end of the year, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported, citing company sources.

The "Drones Package" consists of a ground control station with several drones, a launch catapult and military trucks, Bild said.

According to the report, the drone system could be used as a reconnaissance system, provide an LTE network and intercept or jam communications.

Ukraine is desperate to boost its weapons arsenal, from drones and munitions to tanks, as it battles to repel Russia's invasion.

In the debate about the delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized their importance to end to the war.

"Ukraine needs Taurus missiles to save more lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and to speed up the liberation of the territories and end the war more quickly," Kuleba told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

"The formula is simple: a longer range of the missiles means a shorter duration of the war," he added.

With the weapon, Ukraine could "reach the Russian occupying forces on Ukrainian soil far beyond the front line, disrupt their logistics and destroy command centers and ammunition depots," Kuleba said.

The German government is currently considering sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, but has not yet taken a final decission.

Ukrainian border guards placed a new sign on Snake Island this weekend, recalling the early hours of Russia's invasion when a comrade on the strategic Black Sea outcrop used a choice phrase to refuse to surrender to a warship.

"The next border sign will be installed in our Ukrainian Crimea after its liberation by the defense forces of Ukraine," a uniformed man said, standing before a post painted blue and yellow like the country's flag, in a video shared on Facebook by the head of the border service, Serhiy Deineko.

Tiny Snake Island became synonymous with Ukrainian resistance in the first hours of the February 24, 2022 invasion, when Russian officers on the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva radioed Ukrainian guards stationed there and ordered them to surrender or die. One of them radioed back "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

On April 14, 2022, two Ukrainian missiles struck the Moskva, the biggest warship sunk in combat for 40 years. On June 30, Russia abandoned Snake Island after taking heavy losses trying to defend it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Germany and its Chancellor Olaf Scholz for two additional Patriot air defense system launchers his embattled country has received.

"This is very important," Zelenskyy said in his evening address on Saturday. "Thank you, Germany. Thank you, Olaf!"

News of the Patriot delivery was made public a few days ago and Zelenskyy thanked Scholz immediately afterwars but they have now reached Ukraine. 

The US-built Patriot systems are particularly valuable for Ukraine because, according to Kyiv, they have already intercepted Russian hypersonic missiles several times.

StrengtheningUkraine's air defense means saving thousands of lives according Zelenskyy.

dh/lo (dpa, AP, AFP, Reuters)